Orlando City is preparing to welcome north of 50,000 fans to the Orlando Citrus Bowl this weekend for the opening of its second season, anticipating another effort to #FillTheBowlAgain.
That will not be so much of a problem next season when the team moves into its new stadium. That stadium is still under construction in Downtown Orlando off of Church Street near Parramore Avenue.
And soon the stadium will begin to rise from the flat plot of earth that it is right now.
The team, in addition to updating ticket sales for Sunday’s opener, announced it has begun vertical construction on the stadium site with steel framing coming up on the north side of the stadium.
“We have been on site for almost six months, but when you are going down, people don’t see what you are doing, because you are going below ground level and it’s not very obvious,” said club Founder and President Phil Rawlins said Monday (h/t The Mane Land). “As soon as you start to come vertical and come out of the ground, people can see the stadium starting to take shape. It has a feel, a shape to it, a design to it, has a strength to it. You are looking at big steel girders going up, so yeah it’s exciting for us, as people can now see what we are doing, and that starts the excitement for our fans and our supporters and all of our partners to see that this is going to be an incredible facility right here in the heart of Parramore.”
This is an exciting time for the Orlando City organization and franchise. The stadium was at the heart and a requirement of their MLS bid and eventually owner Flavio de Silva took over to finance the stadium privately.
It will slowly begin rising from the ground and taking shape in the coming months as the season goes on.
This is a big step for Orlando City and the stadium construction. A good way to get their opening week started.
